


A New Year and A New Beginning

by angelsfalling16



Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Kissing The Wrong Person, M/M, Masquerade Party, New Year's Eve, New Year's Kiss, SnowBaz, who is really the right person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 11:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17263649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelsfalling16/pseuds/angelsfalling16
Summary: Penny sets Simon up with a blind date on New Year's Eve. What happens when Simon kisses the wrong person? Will they turn out to be the right person?





	A New Year and A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was definitely not planned, but I got the idea for it at one this morning. I couldn't stop imagining it, so I began working on it when I got up. It was fun to write, and I hope you all enjoy.
> 
> Based on this Tumblr post: https://im-falling-save-me.tumblr.com/post/181626520636/shit-i-kissed-the-wrong-person-when-the-clocked#notes

**Simon**

“Are you ready?” Penny asks me as I glance around the room, wondering if one of the people in this room is the one who I’m supposed to be meeting tonight.

“Do I have to kiss him?” I ask her.

“I guess not. You just have to talk to him and take it from there. It’s up to you what happens after that.”

“What if I don’t like him?”

“What if you do?”

“That’s highly unlikely.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I don’t know him.”

“That’s kind of the point of a blind date.”

I chew on my lip and pull at the sleeve of the suit I’m wearing. I don’t know why this party had to be so formal. Aren’t the ridiculous masks that we were instructed to wear enough?

“How am I even supposed to find him if I can’t see his face? I don’t even know what he looks like.” This all seems like a bad idea to me. I wish that I had just stayed home.

“He’s wearing a black mask with silver detailing.”

“I can see at least five people with a mask of that description in this room alone.”

“He’ll be the one waiting for you out on the balcony.”

“How can you be sure that he’ll be the only one there?”

“Almost everyone else will be out on the back lawn. Look, if you don’t want to do this, that’s fine. You can stay with me, and you’ll never even have to meet the guy.”

“No, I’ll go. If I don’t like him, I won’t have to see him again, right?”

“Right. Now, there’s only ten minutes until midnight, so you should head that way.”

“Wish me luck?”

“Good luck, Simon. Now, go.”

**Baz**

“Come on,” Dev says. “I think that you’ll really like him.”

“Isn’t that what you said the last time you tried to set me up?”

“Okay, so, maybe I was a little wrong about that one—.”

“A little? Do you have any idea how awful that was?”

“I apologized, didn’t I? And I promise this guy is nothing like the last one.”

“He better not be.”

“Does that mean you’ll meet him?”

I sigh. “I suppose. Where is he?”

“He’ll meet you on the second-floor landing. He’s wearing a blue mask.”

I’m suddenly nervous as I climb the stairs up to the second floor, fighting against the crowd of people who are heading outside for the countdown. My hands are sweaty as I stand there, waiting, feeling like an idiot. Maybe I shouldn’t have come.

I decide to go out on the balcony to get a breath of fresh air for a moment. The cold air is nice against my skin as I struggle to get my heartbeat under control. I will make Dev pay if this all turns sour. I’m just about to step back inside when someone opens the door and joins me.

I turn to look at the person, and they’re wearing a dark blue mask with eyes of a lighter blue staring out from behind it. He looks as nervous as I feel as he shifts his weight from one foot to another. After looking me up and down quickly, he joins me at the balcony. He must have come looking for me when he didn’t find me inside.

“Snow,” I breathe.

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s snowing,” I say stupidly because I don’t know how to tell him that the white glitter around the holes in his mask remind me of snow without sounding weird. I’m already making a terrible first impression.

“Right. Do you want to go back inside where it’s warm?”

“And miss the fireworks?” I ask, quirking an eyebrow. I don’t really care about the fireworks, but I don’t want to go back inside just yet.

“Right, the fireworks.” He doesn’t say anything else.

Apparently, he isn’t much of a talker. This might not be a good fit between us. I should just go inside and forget about kissing some stranger at midnight. I’m just about to turn around and leave but then, he presses his arm against mine, and it’s warm and comforting. Maybe I should give him more of a chance.

“I’m Baz by the way,” I say.

“Simon,” he says simply.

“So, your friends set you up, too?” I ask, trying to start some kind of conversation with him.

“Yeah. Penny thinks I’m lonely and need to have some more fun in my life or something.”

I’ve no idea who Penny is, but the way he says her name makes it seem like she’s someone special in his life. He doesn’t sound quite as annoyed as his words make him seem.

“What about you?” He asks.

“My cousin set me up. He’s determined to find me a boyfriend so that I’m no longer the third wheel”

“How’s that search going?”

“Why don’t you tell me?” I ask, lifting one side of my mouth.

**Simon**

This is certainly not how I expected tonight to go. I didn’t think he would be so cute or that the sound of his voice would make my heart race. I don’t look at him as I move my arm slightly so that the back of my hand brushes against his. After a moment, he turns his hand over and intertwines our fingers.

There are only a couple of more minutes until midnight, and I remember how Penny said that I don’t have to kiss this guy if I don’t want to. But maybe there is a slight possibility that I do want to kiss him. I glance at him out of the corner of my eye. It’s difficult to see much of his face underneath his mask, but his lips are a light pink against his dark skin. They look like they would be nice to kiss, but I look away.

We stand there in silence, holding hands and leaning against the railing, watching the people down below us gather together in dark masses. I’m not sure what to say to him. I’ve never been on a blind date before, and I’m not sure how to respond to the question he asked.

Is he asking if I want to be his boyfriend? Was he flirting? Was he joking? Maybe he just came here because his cousin told him to. He probably wasn’t serious. He just wanted someone to kiss at midnight. Isn’t that why I’m here? Did I actually expect anything to come out of this? I don’t know.

Below us, the countdown to midnight begins, and my heart starts racing impossibly faster.

_Ten_

I turn to face him, and he does the same.

_Nine_

He moves his hand out of mine and places it on my side.

_Eight_

I take a deep breath and step closer to him.

_Seven_

My eyes are drawn to his mouth as he runs his tongue along his lower lip.

_Six_

He pulls me closer, and I place my hands on his chest, still unsure whether I should just push him away and run inside. He has no idea who I am under the mask, so he’ll never be able to find me when this is all over.

_Five_

“We don’t have to do this, you know?” He says lowly.

_Four_

“I want to,” I say, meaning it.

_Three_

“You sure?”

_Two_

“Yes,” I tell him, moving my hands to hold his face. His skin is cold against my touch.

_One_

We both lean forward, and our lips meet softly. The kiss begins slow as we test the waters, learning the shape of each other’s mouths. Then, I slide my hands to tangle into his slicked-back hair, and the kiss deepens. His lips are even softer than they looked, and I like the feeling of his hands holding me to him.

There’s a noise somewhere beside us, but I barely register it. I don’t want to stop kissing him.

“Oh, uh, sorry,” a voice says. Baz pulls away to look at them, and I bite back a groan. “I was supposed to be meeting someone wearing a blue mask with white glitter on it out here, but I’m late.” He glances around then says, “and I guess that I might have been mistaken.”

“Wait,” I say, and Baz frowns at me. His eyes flicker over my mask, and I can see the moment that he registers the description of it.

“I was supposed to meet you out here?” I ask the other guy. “Not him?”

Baz steps away, and I can see the hurt and confusion in his eyes before he looks away.

“I’ll just go,” Baz murmurs. “Sorry about the mix up.”

“No, please don’t,” I say, my face burning with embarrassment.

“You and I weren’t supposed to kiss,” he says. “This was a mistake.”

“No. I mean, yeah, kind of. But I wouldn’t have kissed you if I didn’t like you. I was really nervous about tonight, but then I met you. I don’t think this was a mistake. Maybe you and I weren’t set up, but I think that we were supposed to meet.”

“I’m just going to go,” the other boy says.

I turn to look at him, feeling guilty. “I’m sorry about the mix up.”

“It’s alright. Really. I didn’t want to come anyway, but my friend made me.”

That pretty much sums up exactly what happened to me. I wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t been late. Would I have still met Baz?

“Happy New Year,” he says before turning and heading back inside, closing the door behind him.

Baz and I are quiet after that, neither of us really looking at the other. How do we pick back up after that? We weren’t supposed to meet, and he’s probably wishing that he had met someone else instead of me. I was so nervous that I barely even said anything to him.

“Baz…” I whisper, but I’m not sure what else to say.

I keep my eyes rooted on the ground until I hear a quiet, breathy sound above me. I look up and am surprised to see that he is laughing.

“What’s so funny?” I ask.

“Everything. I mean, how did we both end up kissing the wrong person?”

“Because we’re disasters?” I ask, fighting the urge to laugh with him.

“Speak for yourself,” he says, grinning at me.

“At least I was in the right place. What do you think happened to the person you were supposed to kiss anyway?”

“Who cares?” He says, reaching out to hold my hand. “It doesn’t matter anyway because if I had met them, I wouldn’t have met you.” Then, he kisses me again, and it feels like the start of something new.

 

**_One year later…._ **

**Simon**

“Nervous?” Penny asks me.

“Only a little.”

“Don’t be. It’s not like you can kiss the wrong person two years in a row.” I groan, and she laughs. “Go to the balcony. Don’t be late, and make sure that it’s the right person this time.”

“Wish me luck?”

“You don’t need luck, Simon. This guy is perfect for you.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I just am. Now, go.”

When I reach the balcony, the person I’m supposed to meet is already there, leaning against the railing. His hair hangs loose, almost brushing his shoulders. He turns when he hears the door close, and a small smile warms his face.

“Hi,” I say, trying to fight back my own smile and failing.

“Hello.”

“I had a little mishap here last year,” I say, stepping closer, “so would you mind if I saw your face before we kissed?”

“Not at all,” he says, smirking

He removes his mask, and my eyes meet the same grey eyes as last year, but it’s different this time. They aren’t a stranger’s eyes. I’ve been with this guy a lot this past year, and I would know him anywhere.

“Seems like I’ve got the right person this year,” I say, trying not to laugh.

He chuckles, shaking his head and closing the distance between us. “Hello, Simon.”

“Was this all really necessary?” I ask him, wrapping my arms around his waist.

“What? You don’t like reenacting our first meeting?”

“It is a bit strange, isn’t it?” I ask.

“Only if we had messed up like we did last year.”

“I wouldn’t call that messing up.”

“What would you call it then?”

“The exact opposite. I don’t think I kissed the wrong person that day. I think I kissed the right one.”

“You’re such a sap.”

“Says the person with tears in their eyes.”

“Shut up.”

“Make me.”

Fireworks go off behind us as he kisses me, but we don’t care. We didn’t come here for that. We came here for each other, to remember the day that brought us together. There are no interruptions this year. This was all meant to be, and I can’t imagine being with anyone else.


End file.
